Minnesota is just 1,000 jobs short of replacing the 160,000 jobs it lost during the Great Recession. But well-paying construction and manufacturing jobs are down over the past five years while health care jobs are on the rise.

Minnesota’s well-paying jobs shift to health care

Outpatient services — the real growth area in health care — is the focus of the roughly $60 million expansion planned to start this year at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. Preliminary work was already under way last fall for a nearly 133,000-square-foot medical office building, as well as about 30,000 square feet in additions to the actual hospital. (FILE PHOTO: BILL KLOTZ)

It is less blue collar — unless blue nurses scrubs count.

Minnesota is just 1,000 jobs short of replacing the 160,000 jobs it lost during the Great Recession. But well-paying construction and manufacturing jobs are down over the past five years while health care jobs are on the rise, according to a Finance & Commerce analysis of state jobs data.

There were about 42,000 more health care jobs in Minnesota in February 2013 than there were in February 2008 — an 11 percent increase that nearly makes up for roughly 20,000 construction jobs and 31,000 manufacturing jobs lost during the same time period, according to state Department of Employment and Economic Development data.

The situation begs the question: Can someone used to working with a jackhammer shift to taking blood pressure readings for a living?

“People can transition,” said Laura Beeth, system director of talent acquisition at Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, which at 20,021 employees is 1,098 jobs up from February 2008.

Still, “the sooner you know you want to be in health care, the better off you are,” said Beeth, citing the science and math skills that are needed even for nursing assistants and medical lab technicians.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system has found high demand for pharmacy technicians, dental hygienists, biomedical engineers are among the high-demand areas. Last year, the system through a partnership with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce conducted 55 listening sessions across the state that engaged more than 1,500 people and 700 business leaders over future workforce needs.

“To meet these needs, we are working in many areas including providing academic programs that ensure our graduates have the skills needed for the work that needs to be done,” MnSCU Chancellor Steven Rosenstone said in an emailed statement.

For its part, Fairview has been transitioning to providing more care in its primary care and other outpatient facilities, versus its hospitals, amid state and federal health reforms that encourage more coordinated care that keeps patients from landing in the hospital in the first place.

Additional physician assistants and nurse practitioners are empowered to use their expertise more to care for patients, Beeth said. And there are more “care coordinator” jobs, and positions related to electronic medical records and analyzing the information the medical records produce.

Fairview is not alone. DEED data shows ambulatory health care services, which include physician offices and other outpatient locations, up 12.3 percent to nearly 137,000 jobs over the past five years. Hospitals jobs grew by 6.3 percent, to about 103,000 jobs.

Rochester-based Mayo Clinic, Minnesota’s largest private employer, saw its jobs in the state grow 6.6 percent, to 41,431, from 2008 to 2012.

A growing and aging population in need of care, as well as the federal Affordable Care Act’s emphasis on quality and outcomes versus volume, allowed the health care sector to grow through the Great Recession, said the state’s health economist, Stefan Gildemeister.

The sector might grow even more now that the economy has improved, with more people seeking discretionary health care that they previously held off on, Gildemeister said.

Silver lining for construction, manufacturing

Health care’s growth may even be part of the construction industry’s turnaround story, because the changes taking place in health care are fueling building projects.

Fairview, for example, is planning to add about 30,000 square feet to Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. But the much larger project starting this year at the campus involves a nearly 133,000-square-foot medical office building to hold more outpatient services.

Such health care building projects could help fuel the construction sector’s recovery, said Mark Davis, principal at The Davis Group, a Minneapolis-based health care real estate company.

“We think it goes hand in hand with the jobs that are being created, and the additional construction activity going on. We believe it will increase over the next couple of years,” Davis said.

The building industry also stands to benefit from a rebounding housing construction industry, including an apartment building boom in the Twin Cities. There are also large public works projects including the $957 million Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Work on a $975 million Minnesota Vikings stadium is expected to start this fall.

All of these factors helped Minnesota’s construction industry add 1,900 jobs over the past 12 months, a 2.5 percent increase. And even though many of the fastest-growing job occupations are expected to be in health care, Minnesota DEED still projects a 39.3 percent increase in construction jobs over the decade.

The projected growth begs the question of when construction wages will truly grow. Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, noted that several construction trades unions have contracts up this spring.

The industry’s average wages have barely kept up with inflation, according to DEED data. Melander points out that the data does not include the added health insurance premiums and pension costs that construction workers saw through the recession.

When it comes to manufacturing, DEED projections are less rosy — only 4.9 percent growth over the decade. But even with manufacturing there is a bright side: The jobs that remain post-recession pay better because they require more skills.

Average manufacturing industry wages in Minnesota grew nearly twice as fast as inflation over the past five years — up 14 percent to $25.28 an hour.

“Overall, they are pretty good jobs in terms of compensation and how engaging they are,” said Kirby Sneen, vice president at the Golden Valley-based Manufacturers Alliance.

A Changed Workforce

Minnesota may have “regained” the number of jobs it lost during the Great Recession. But the workforce now has fewer blue collar construction and manufacturing jobs — and more health care jobs.

Industry: Jobs, Feb. 2013 / Percent change, 2008-13

Construction: 77,782 / -20.17%

Manufacturing: 301,913 / -9.43%

Information: 55,192 / -3.83%

Trade, Transportation and Utilities: 503,801 / -2.51%

Leisure and Hospitality: 231,585 / -0.34%

Other Services (Private Only): 116,223 / -0.29%

Government: 423,503 / -0.09%

Financial Activities: 178,391 / +0.89%

Professional and Business Services: 337,122 / +4.20%

Educational and Health: 488,552 / +11.59%

Mining and Logging: 6,885 / +16.97%

Total Nonfarm: 2,720,949 / -0.03%

Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

Where Are the Raises?

Manufacturing and construction jobs are still down, but average wages in the past five years outstripped inflation, which was 8 percent. Financial activities jobs — as well as the “other services” jobs involving everything from repair shops to religious organizations — also fared well.

Industry**: Avg. earning per hour, 2013 / Percent change, 2008-13

Other Services (Private Only): $22.28 / +42%

Financial Activities: $32.48 / +20%

Manufacturing: $25.28 / +14%

Construction: $28.54 / +9%

Trade, Transportation and Utilities: $22.47 / +8%

Leisure and Hospitality: $13.54 / +8%

Educational and Health: $26.19 / +7%

Professional and Business Services: $28.83 / +4%

Information*: $22.62 / -2%

Total Private: $25.59 / +10%

*Information only includes average production worker wage.

**Average wages for government, mining and logging workers not available.

5 comments

Notice that those “healthcare” jobs have little to do with the actual health care. The capitalization of healthcare has made for some very wealthy CEO’s and CFO’s, has bloated the bureaucratic end of the profession, shortchanged the nurses and doctors, and generally shafted the patient. So it’s not really good news, just another reminder that you, average human citizen struggling to pay the premiums IF you have insurance, will be paying more and more. Why, because greed knows no bounds and consumers are to dumb and frightened (right where they should be) to challenge this traitorous behavior.

With the population continuing to age healthcare workers should be in high demand for some time to come. In addition, knowing that there will be demand for them in the future is important to anyone who is retraining.